Rt. 28 Suicide Jumper Was Long-Time Associate of LaRouche

Falls Church News Press, Virgina/April 19, 2007
By Nicholas F. Benton

A 58-year-old Leesburg man whose death due to a fall from the Waxpool overpass onto a busy Route 28 corridor in Loudoun County last week was ruled a suicide by authorities has been identified as a long-time associate of political extremist Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.

Ken Kronberg headed a recently-defunct printing operation, known as PMR and World Comp, set up in 1978 under the supervision of LaRouche that printed LaRouche-related materials at a location not far from the site of the suicide. According to reports, the companies were among other things in serious arrears in tax payments, including employee withholding, due largely to lack of payment for printing jobs by other LaRouche entities.

In the morning just hours prior to the Kronberg suicide on April 11, a daily internal document, the “morning briefing” circulated among members of the LaRouche entities, lashed out, in a paraphrase of LaRouche, at what it called the failures of the “baby boom” generation, including among the entities’ own members, and singled out “the print shop” as “among the worst.” It then went on to state, speaking to the younger generation, “the Boomers will be scared into becoming human, because you’re the real world, and they’re not. Unless they want to commit suicide.”

The “morning briefing” is considered authoritative within all the LaRouche entities that many, including many former participants, contend operate collectively like a cult. The April 11 version, written by Tony Papert of LaRouche’s inner leadership circle, his National Executive Committee, appears to assert that the only way the “baby boom” generation, ostensibly including those among LaRouche’s own associates, can be in the “real world” is through suicide.

Kronberg was among the long-term associates of LaRouche, dating back to the early 1970s, that LaRouche has been claiming in a series of recent statements are responsible, by being typical of the so-called “baby boom” generation, for the ineffectiveness of his movement, despite their decades of personal sacrifices in support of his cause. His appeal has been to the new leadership potential of his so-called “LaRouche Youth Movement.”

Ex-LaRouche associates, commenting on an on-line list serve, have expressed outrage and deep dismay at the suicide, speaking about years of pressure, demands and abuse from within the LaRouche circle, including what they contend has been a systematic lack of regard for the personal needs of members.

“This insidious cult, sect, whatever you want to call it has harmed people for decades,” one wrote. “There is no remorse from LHL (LaRouche-ed.) and many of the scum there today…I do not know Ken (Kronberg-ed.) but view him as a tragic victim of this monstrosity. No matter how much pain he inflicted on people by bowing to LHL, it was not enough. No matter that a whole business was being sucked dry, it was not enough. Thirty-five years of your life is now reduced to a memo where you are told that you’re worthless and should kill yourself.”

Another offered, “There was never any money at PMR and members were paid only half their salaries, which were already pittances, and then Ken paid himself only once a month.”